JGP Tallinn Entries | Page 5 | Golden Skate

JGP Tallinn Entries

Joined
Feb 15, 2007
Gracie Gold - WOW. Just WOW. The best US lady in years! She can do a clean 3f-3t AND 3lz-3t combo!!! With that jump content she would even be able to win the US Senior Nationals!!! (I know that junior and senior programs have not the same number of elements.) And she's 16 years now. Let's hope she's past most of her growth changes now - and that she can survive (mentally) the upcoming hype / live up to the upcoming hype.
 

Jammers

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Country
United-States
Sadly i think Gracie will skate as a Junior at Nationals. She would put a scare into some of the top Senior ladies who can't seem to rotate or land their jumps. Someone like Gracie would make them either start getting it together or get left in the dust.
 

LeCygne

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Sadly i think Gracie will skate as a Junior at Nationals. She would put a scare into some of the top Senior ladies who can't seem to rotate or land their jumps. Someone like Gracie would make them either start getting it together or get left in the dust.

It would actually be good for her to do Junior Nationals because she'd very likely get sent to Junior Worlds if she skates well. Vanessa Lam opted to do Senior Nationals last year, and while she skated very well and placed like 5th or something, it wasn't enough for an international assignment. If Gracie does go to Junior Worlds and holds her own against the Russian girls, I could see her skipping the JGP and going straight to seniors in the 2012-2013 season, like Agnes Zawadski.

It also might be good that she didn't get a second JGP assignment and potentially qualify for the JGPF, because that's a lot of traveling and competing for someone who's never competed internationally before, especially after her loaded summer schedule. This way she'll have more left in the tank for Nationals and whatever might come after that. :)
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Does Gracie have to do Sectionals, does anyone know? If so, it will be hard on the girls in her Section!
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
It would actually be good for her to do Junior Nationals because she'd very likely get sent to Junior Worlds if she skates well. Vanessa Lam opted to do Senior Nationals last year, and while she skated very well and placed like 5th or something, it wasn't enough for an international assignment. If Gracie does go to Junior Worlds and holds her own against the Russian girls, I could see her skipping the JGP and going straight to seniors in the 2012-2013 season, like Agnes Zawadski.

It also might be good that she didn't get a second JGP assignment and potentially qualify for the JGPF, because that's a lot of traveling and competing for someone who's never competed internationally before, especially after her loaded summer schedule. This way she'll have more left in the tank for Nationals and whatever might come after that. :)

Vanessa Lam was in 7th. And the reason she didn't get to JW was because Agnes and Christina placed above her in 4th and 5th and I think Courtney Hicks got in automatically as the junior nationals champion.

In any case I agree with you, I think it was better for her to make her one statement during JGP and then focus on Nationals. Let's face it, while she's great, there's something to be said about conquering your prior demon (in her case, Midwestern sectionals).

ETA: Obviously I had a slip there...with Courtney's titles.
 
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silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Does Gracie have to do Sectionals, does anyone know? If so, it will be hard on the girls in her Section!

AFAIK yes. This JGP event gave her a bye through regionals, but sectionals isn't for another few weeks, so I assume she will be there as she doesn't have another international assignment around that time.

As as for "skipping the JGP", even if Gracie opts to do GP next season (which I think she probably should considering her age and that she won this JGP with one of the deepest fields handily) she still would have competed on the JGP this season, so it doesn't seem as arbitrary as Agnes's decision last season. Of course, if Gracie doesn't medal at Junior Worlds then giving the JGP another go round might not be a bad idea, but considering the field, she could very well end off the podium and still score 170+!
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
This is true. JW's is going to have a scary, deep field.

No kidding. Since Liza and Adelina still aren't old enough for seniors, they're going to be back at JW, along with Julia, likely. That said, while Grace does not have the lines of the Russian babies, she does have solid jump technique and I think she has the potential to surprise, just as she did here.
 

Chemistry66

Mmmmm, tacos.
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
AFAIK yes. This JGP event gave her a bye through regionals, but sectionals isn't for another few weeks, so I assume she will be there as she doesn't have another international assignment around that time.

As as for "skipping the JGP", even if Gracie opts to do GP next season (which I think she probably should considering her age and that she won this JGP with one of the deepest fields handily) she still would have competed on the JGP this season, so it doesn't seem as arbitrary as Agnes's decision last season. Of course, if Gracie doesn't medal at Junior Worlds then giving the JGP another go round might not be a bad idea, but considering the field, she could very well end off the podium and still score 170+!

If she's got a bye through regionals, IceNetwork doesn't seem to know it...she's on the roster I linked to in my post above.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
If she's got a bye through regionals, IceNetwork doesn't seem to know it...she's on the roster I linked to in my post above.

Speaking of which, how does Samantha Cesario have a bye for her regionals? Her regionals are the same time as Gracie's so she couldn't get out of it due to JGP. (Sylvia, can you explain?)

ETA: It looks like per Sylvia's site that Gracie does indeed have a bye (though she's listed on the roster).
 
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LeCygne

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Vanessa Lam was in 7th. And the reason she didn't get to JW was because Agnes and Christina placed above her in 4th and 5th and I think Courtney Hicks got in automatically as the junior nationals champion.

In any case I agree with you, I think it was better for her to make her one statement during JGP and then focus on Nationals. Let's face it, while she's great, there's something to be said about conquering your prior demon (in her case, Midwestern sectionals).

Thanks for the correction. I just rewatched Vanessa Lam's Nationals LP recently and remembered that she did well, but I forgot about Christina and Agnes. I can't imagine if Christina, Agnes, Vanessa, and Gracie were all in Senior Nationals vying for Junior Worlds spots (in addition to Cesario and the other JGP'ers). The US has had so many promising and successful juniors recently - if only one would translate to the senior circuit..

Gracie kind of reminds me of Christina Gao when she suddenly had a miraculous summer of 2009 and broke onto the JGP stage, wowing people with her jumps and medaling at the JGPF.. Then at 2010 Nationals the TV commentators all called her the future of the sport. But the consistency was never really there with Christina and she never scored like Gracie just did, so we'll see..
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
If she's [Gold] got a bye through regionals, IceNetwork doesn't seem to know it...she's on the roster I linked to in my post above.
Speaking of which, how does Samantha Cesario have a bye for her regionals? Her regionals are the same time as Gracie's so she couldn't get out of it due to JGP. (Sylvia, can you explain?)

ETA: It looks like per Sylvia's site that Gracie does indeed have a bye (though she's listed on the roster).
Hannah Miller was initially listed in the EGL Regionals Junior Ladies starting order on IceNetwork 2 weeks ago like Gracie Gold currently is for UGL Regionals -- both received "late" byes due to their JGP assignments as alternates and their internationals being 7 or fewer days before or after Regionals. I assume their names were not submitted as byes to the USFS Regional accountants early enough to be removed from their respective SP draws.

Samantha Cesario qualified for a bye through her Regionals in 2 ways -- because she won the Senior Ladies event at Eastern Sectionals last year and also because her 2nd JGP in Estonia was the week before North Atlantics.

Here's the link to my post in the US Regionals thread that contains a link to my unofficial US Sectionals qualifiers page and list of known byes: http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sh...als-discussion&p=582393&viewfull=1#post582393
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
Of all the U.S. JGP skaters/teams, only those who qualify for the JGP Final receive a bye through Sectionals to Nationals (follow link posted above for my Sectionals unofficial rosters-in-progress).
 

ordinary person

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 6, 2009
Risa presentation is even more beautiful when she grow up, better than many senior in my opinion. Her posture and flow on ice is amazing. She is like mini Arakawa + Chen.

Personally, I prefer her presentation more than gold (she totally deserve to win here, and USFSA should give her 2 grand prix) and other juniors this year.

I agree, after watching their programs again i had a feeling they gave Gracie too many points because she didn't seem to be that much better than Risa considering the sp and the lp altogether...
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
I agree, after watching their programs again i had a feeling they gave Gracie too many points because she didn't seem to be that much better than Risa considering the sp and the lp altogether...

I guess every one has a different opinion on "that much better" but I still think Gracie deserved to win by a good margin. Just on the tech side alone, Gracie's base value was 7.65 points more than Risa's. That would already account for more than 50 percent of the 14.86 point margin Gracie had in the competition.

Gracie got 12.11 points in just +GOE vs 7.98 for Risa, a 4.13 point difference. That's 11.78 when added with the BV difference.

Everyone is wondering if Gracie should have gotten more points in PCS. Okay between the two programs, Gracie's PCS was 77.77 vs 74.69 for Risa, 3.08 points.While Risa is quite elegant and has great skating skills, Gracie also has some great skills (i.e. speed/transition/execution) that would keep her in the PCS game.

Also, quite frankly, Risa's somewhat tentative skating in the long program probably lost her some points as well. While Gracie made mistakes, they didn't interrupt the program at all. (That single loop almost looked like it was planned, given how calmly she moved on; same with the lower level spin.) that's going to help you in that execution mark.

I would say that perhaps that the judges could have scored Risa higher in PCS but it would not be a runaway like everyone is insisting. i would say perhaps, at best, five points over Gracie. So if you added the difference plus five points (8.08 points), you still have Gracie winning by 6.78 points, which would make sense given her stronger tech content.
 

mskater93

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
The thing Gracie had over the entire group of skaters (including Risa) was flow in and out of jumps (and this IS accounted for in PCS). If you watch her flow, she is almost as fast flowing OUT of her jumps as she is going in. There were several jumps that Risa was much slower on the way out of her jumps than going in like she was eeking them out. This is going to hurt the PE and SS marks.
 
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